Nicaise Le Févre (1610-1669) didn't have formal tertiary education. Instead, he apprenticed under his apothecary father until his father died, and subsquently he was taught by a medical Professor from L'Académie de Sedan.

Le Févre worked as a Master Apothecary at his father's business when his training was completed and later moved to Paris where he gave private lessons in pharmaceutical chemistry and became well known as an educator among the Parisian aristocracy. His elite connections resulted in Le Févre being appointed "demonstrator in chemistry at the Jardin du Roi and in 1654 he obtained the privilege of a royal apothecary and distiller."

One of his students was King Charles II who set up Le Févre with a laboratory in St James Palace in London as part of his appointment as Royal Professor of Chemistry and Apothecary to the Royal household. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Le Févre is best remembered for his 1660 publication in 2 volumes, 'Traicté de la Chymie', one of the foremost chemistry texts of the 17th century. It was translated into english, latin and german and a number of editions were released in the following 80 years. The extended title of the work translates (by me, in updated language) as:

***'Compendium of Chemistry' - The first volume will be used as an introduction and for instruction both in relation to the theory of this science in general, and as a means to outline the experimental methods of the art which can be applied to animals, plants and minerals without loss of their essential virtues. The second volume continues to outline the process of making extractions ('juices') from plants and minerals.***

'Traicté de la Chymie' is perhaps a good example of a work that manages to straddle both the middle ages and the modern scientific world. It belongs at once to the fields of alchemy and chemistry and was written by an apothecary and a pharmacist. His 'Traicté' is said to be modelled after the 1636 'Abrégé des secrets Chymiques' by famous alchemist, Pierre Jean Fabre and I noted a passing reference to another famous alchemist, Raymond Llull, in the preface.

Le Févre: "Chymistry is the art and knowledge of nature itself; it is by her means that we examine the Principles, out of which natural bodies do consist and are compounded; and by her are discovered unto us the causes and sources of their generations and corruptions; and of all the changes and alterations to which they are liable."